Nobel Peace Prize Recipient to Speak on Nonviolent Activism

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AMHERST, Mass. – Tawakkol Karman, the first Arab woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, will speak on “Nonviolence as a Means of Struggle, Change and Success” on Wednesday, April 4 at 3 p.m. in the Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Hall at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The event, which is free and open to all, includes a 30-minute presentation followed by a 30-minute discussion.

Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her work in the non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building in Yemen.

The mother of three, she is a human rights activist, journalist, politician and president of “Women Journalists without Chains,” which advocates for rights and freedoms and provides media skills to journalists. She is also the general coordinator of the Peaceful Youth Revolution Council, a member of the advisory board for the Transparency International and several other international human rights NGOs.

In 2007, Karman began organizing weekly protests in Yemen’s capitol, Sana’a, targeting systemic government repression and calling for inquiries into corruption and other forms of social and legal injustice. Her weekly protests continued until 2011, when she redirected protesters to support the Arab Spring. She brought Yemen’s revolution to New York, organizing rallies at U.N. headquarters.

Karman is the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. At age 32, she was the second youngest Nobel Peace laureate when she received the award.

Her talk is sponsored by the UMass Amherst Psychology of Peace and Violence Program and the UMass Lowell Greeley Scholars for Peace Studies Award